E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Hot roaster

A gal who runs the fine Ristretto Roasters coffee shop up in the Beaumont neighborhood (where Winterborne restaurant used to be) has a blog. Lately, she's wrapping her mind around the Multnomah County property tax on her business equipment.

Comments (17)

Fudgesticks!!
What's wrong with Portland?! School closings, moronic business taxes, $500 sq ft condos, useless OSHU trams and let's not forget this ridiculous business impact tax.http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2004/08/02/story2.html?page=2
It makes wonder why anyone in their right mind who move here to start a family or business. I have a theory, Portland hates children but loves your money.

How do other, comparable jurisdictions handle this. (I.e., I'm not interested in hearing how Harney County does it, but rather how other metro counties around the country do it.) I recall a similiar tax was also a hot topic in my former state of residence, which was not, shall we say, a blue state.

The coffee lady sounds like she needs to switch to de-caf, because, as we keep saying, Oregon has the 44th lowest taxes of any state in the union and look out Mississippi!

I think she was less upset by the taxes themselves, and more by the bureaucratic inefficiency: they sent her a notice on April 27 that had a due date of March 1, then told her that she would be assessed a 5% late fee, and then would have to file a claim to have that fee refunded, when all they had to do was not assess the late fee because they sent her the notice two months after it was due.

The issue is the Kafkaesque timing. She got a letter on April 27th saying she had to file by March 1st? When she called to ask they said since she is a new business she has until June 1st to file, then she'll be assessed a 5% fine for missing the March deadline!

As far as the onerous tax burden on small buisness, there isn't one, at least in this instance, having less than $14K in equipment exempts you. Which does beg the question of the 5%, I would say 5% of nothign is of course nothing, but we'll see:-)

I do take exception to one of her comments, she says she was already taxed onthe equipment since even though Oregon has no sales tax she bought her equipment on-line (I'm assuming this means she paid sales tax to the states of origin) All I have to say to that is that was a choice she made, hardly Oregon's fault.

Not to mention that she need only claim that she has less than $14K of stuff and avoid the whole mess. I wonder which route she'll take?

Having managed a coffeehouse, I can tell you there is no way that they have less than $14,000 worth of equipment. A top-of-the-line espresso maker can set you back $15,000 to $20,000. They roast their own beans, and those roasters can cost even more. Add the stove, dishwasher, etc. etc. etc., and that's a sizeable investment in equipment.

What I wonder about is how this doesn't constitute double taxation. The whole reason you buy the equipment is to make money, and you are taxed on the money you make. And then they tax you on the stuff you bought to make that money. Very silly.

This system has been in place for a long, long time. Although it may be a convenience, there is no requirement that the county send anyone a form or remind them of what the law requires - its a self-reporting system like income tax. Taxpayers are deemed to know the law, including coffee shop owners. Sounds like the county did this business a favor by potentially cutting off a larger late filing penalty.

Sent her a bill? Tax bills come out in late October following the determination of values from returns due March 1. Best guess - the county determined that she should have sent in a filing but didn't, so, rather than send her a different late filer notice, sent her the standard form letter. A more elaborate and nuanced system with multiple letters for all occasions would cost more tax dollars - its that or the tram [ka-boom!]. Perfect? Perhaps not, but, as she pointed out, a real person on the other end of the line walked her through what she needed to know to comply with longstanding state law. Next?

Road Work

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